For those who already know (and we love you! :0) the SXSW ~ South by Southwest in Austin, Texas – panel picker is open and we need your vote – here’s the list of library submissions with easy-to-click-links:

For those who don’t yet know….to shift the perceptions of libraries from a warehouse of books to dynamic places that celebrate ideas, we need to share library innovations far and wide with diverse audiences in unique formats. SXSW Interactive is a major annual gathering of thought-leaders and funders – “fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW is the premier destination for discovery.” (Sounds a lot like the library!)

Interactive design and relationship to other fields.

There are a slew of incredible submissions this year proposed by creative library and museum professionals. You can help put libraries, archives, and museums (LAM) at the forefront of this ideas-exchange by voting for LAM presentations in the SXSWi Panel Picker from Aug. 19-Sept. 6, 2013, at http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/.

Below is a list of sxswLAM panel proposals and well as sxswLAM-related panel proposals. You can also do a search by keyword in the Panel Picker for “library” or “libraries”and there are dozens more. If you believe that librarian voices need to be heard, even if you’re not attending, we need your vote to make it happen at SXSWi 2014.

Again, the handy-dandy list of library, archive and museum proposals is here:

Innovation and Collaboration

The Somerville Public Library, in a partnership with the Harvard Library Innovation Lab, launched the “Awesome Box” project at all three SPL branches in early February. This endeavor will allow patrons to give fellow users suggestions on what book/CD/DVD they found to be “awesome.”

“Somerville is the first public library to get on board with the ‘Awesome Box’ project,” says Maria Carpenter, Somerville’s library director. “We are always looking for dynamic, innovative and creative approaches to library service, and this was certainly one of those.”

Awesome Box

Here’s how it will work: When a patron particularly enjoys an item, he or she will return the book into the “Awesome Box,” which will be clearly labeled with appropriate signage. Then, a library staff member will scan the book twice – once, checking the book in as usual, then another time to list that item on the “awesome” page, which can be found here: http://somerville.awesomebox.io/.

Patrons can then visit the page and see what others have found notably enlightening, mind-blowing or helpful recently. There is also a “most awesome” section, which shows the items that were most thought to be awesome. Users can also search for items that are listed as awesome. When patrons click on the media’s icon, it takes them to the item’s listing on the Minuteman Library Network catalog, so that they can read more about the item and its availability or place it on hold.

Somerville’s commitment to innovation and collaboration can be emulated by any other public library. The Harvard Innovation Lab provides excellent documentation along with step-by-step instruction. The Awesome Box project is just one direction they are exploring.

The great thing about this sort of project is that it capitalizes on patron momentum. Whenever a patron returns a book or media, they either put it in the regular book drop or express their approval by putting it in the Awesome Box. Either way, the same energy is expended with an added value to the library as a book or media review.

There is an added value to the patron with their likes and preferences registered and noted. There is also an added value to all of the other patrons who might not otherwise know what gems the library contains. The only extra step is checking it in – scanning a second time to register in the Awesome database.

I have come here not to bury Publib, but to praise it.

Ghost of Publib

Last year, OCLC announced that they would graciously host the popular Publib listserve. With 10 thousand + subscribers representing libraries throughout the world, it certainly represented a win/win situation. OCLC – which sells its products to libraries would host and subscribers – who buy products from OCLC could continue to subscribe. OCLC would benefit from the feel-good PR and the ability to data-mine and Publib subscribers could continue to enjoy the communication resource they have contributed to since the early 1990s.

While being hosted by UC Berkeley and Webjunction, Google and Yahoo! and all of the other major search engines readily indexed the discussions by Publib contributors. Even now, a quick engine search of almost any topic regarding public libraries renders a link to a Publib posting from previous years.

But, all of those links are now broken and the provenance of indexing has been destroyed. Although you may still view cached files, the only way to get live files is to go behind the wall set up by OCLC. Access to the root directory is by subscription only, so the search engines would no longer index the content: http://listserv.oclc.org/ So, everyone who searches any topic ever posted on Publib must now go through OCLC and search the files that they exclusively control.

What a great benefit this must represent to corporate interests of OCLC! Thousands and thousands of postings on every topic regarding public libraries, created by uncompensated authors, and they now control all of the content and its indexing for almost no associated cost and can monitor and data-mine all usage by the library community. OCLC established and litigated ownership and control of Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) in OCLC v The Library Hotel and was recently accused of antitrust by SkyRiver and Innovative Interfaces. Does OCLC now effectively have intellectual property rights to all of the work by Publib contributors?

Hosting a listserv is really not a big deal. It is fairly low level technology and relatively easy to manage. With a bit of server space, Open Source programs such as Mailman can be set up that can manage a huge number of subscribers:

Hosting by a non-corporate entity such as a library school or a large library system would have made much more sense. The original iteration with UC Berkeley hosting nested the conversation in a bastion of free speech. Is removing and blocking indexing censorship? Is vetting all new subscribers appropriate? Does the ability to restrict access represent ownership? Does hosting a listserve and controlling access to everything previously written grant intellectual property rights and equate to ownership? Is Publib just another example of intellectual outsourcing?

Time will tell. But, at this time Publib is a ghost of what it once represented.

Beware Graphic Content Ahead!

This graphic image or word cloud was created using Wordle. It is derived from the subjects and authors of postings in PubLib for November 2011. The size of the graphics is directly related to the number of un-weighted unique occurrences each month of the individual words represented. Most automated graphic processes that generate these types of word clouds use additional weight for H1 – H6 tags through feeds. These graphics are not processed with H1 – H6 tags. The titles and authors were copied to Notepad and stripped of all HTML before being run through the Wordle Java platform. The process is case-sensitive so Library is not the same thing as library.

The most prominent word without employing filters would have been Publib. Publib and Fwd were deleted from the plaintext files before processing. In addition, the Wordle program automatically disregards articles, conjunctions, and prepositions.

Beware Graphic Content Ahead!

This graphic image or word cloud was created using Wordle. It is derived from the subjects and authors of postings in PubLib for April 2011. The size of the graphics is directly related to the number of un-weighted unique occurrences each month of the individual words represented. Most automated graphic processes that generate these types of word clouds use additional weight for H1 – H6 tags through feeds. These graphics are not processed with H1 – H6 tags. The titles and authors were copied to Notepad and stripped of all HTML before being run through the Wordle Java platform. The process is case-sensitive so Library is not the same thing as library.

The most prominent word without employing filters would have been Publib. Publib and Fwd were deleted from the plaintext files before processing. In addition, the Wordle program automatically disregards articles, conjunctions, and prepositions.

Best of Publib Current Topics and Archives

Provocative video suitable for all audiences coming soon

This edition of Best of Publib covers March 15th through March 28th 2010. This PubLib review and analysis includes questions about naming library rooms, thought-provoking discussions about new media archives , library materials security, and our new poll on R-rated movie access. Some of the topics we will be reviewing include:

Topic » Auction Sites? ♦ Kimberly Francisco with Huntsville Public Library TX is pursuing a similar question but wants to know how to auction naming rights. Are there free tools such as E-bay that would lend themselves to online auctioning of library rooms?

Best of Publib Current Topics and Archives

Video coming soon

This edition of Best of Publib covers the weeks of March 1st through March 14th 2010. This edition includes questions about collection development, thought-provoking discussions about known inaccuracies in ‘non-fiction’ works , circulation manager duties , humorous anecdotes regarding blondes , and the impact of closing public school libraries: